Chanel 2012 — The Palace of Light
Lagerfeld’s Chanel shows are renowned for being heavily themed, transforming the Grand Palais in Paris into supermarkets, airports and protest marches.
Water was the obvious motif for Chanel’s 2012 Ready To Wear runway, with huge corals, shells, sea horses and stingrays decorating the Grand Palais, as well as Florence Welch emerging like Botticelli’s Venus from a clamshell to sing. Lightness, though, was the more subtle line which drew the collection together.
Lagerfeld said he wanted lightness, using new fabrics brought a pearlescent shine to the collection. Pearls decorated models’ hair, and were strung around waists in place of the typical Chanel gold belt.
Typical Chanel was off the cards for this collection. Despite being one of the most recognisable luxury brands, Lagerfeld was keen to avoid anything too “Chanel” claiming that there were already so many other people doing that style.
Remnants of the brand remained, though. The typical boxy tweed was still to be seen, as were drop waists and the iconic monochrome colour scheme.
